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The Atlantic Council: At the center of the Russiagate hysteria

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 02/20/2018 - 12:08am

I was reading about the coming Italian election, when I came across this:

A report by the U.S. Senate last month highlighted Italy as a potential target for the Kremlin, and the Atlantic Council found evidence tying Russian hackers to fake online activity leading up to Germany’s general election and Catalonia’s struggle for independence from Spain last year.

I didn't think too much about it until I began reading the next article:

In an extensive report late last fall, the Atlantic Council think tank concluded that Russia’s influence may be strongest in Italy, where the highest-polling populist Five Star Movement has attracted both right-wing and left-wing supporters. “The party’s documented pro-Kremlin stance combined with its grassroots mobilization capacity make it a particularly important ally for the Kremlin, and thus a dangerous force against the E.U., NATO, and the transatlantic partnership,” they write, even though a direct link between the Kremlin and the Five Star Movement has never been proved and a recent increase in bot activity there has so far not been directly traced back to Russia.

That got me wondering just how many ScaryRussia! reports that the Atlantic Council puts out.
For instance, this one.

Russia’s attempts at influencing politics in Europe have increased since Putin’s re-election in 2012, according a report published by The Atlantic Council in November. The report says, “the Kremlin has accelerated its efforts to resurrect the arsenal of ‘active measures’ — tools of political warfare once used by the Soviet Union that aimed to influence world events through the manipulation of media, society, and politics.”

"Spain was a secondary target,” said Ben Nimmo, who tracks Russian disinformation campaigns at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab in Washington. “The primary target is the validity of Western democracy.”

Harding leaves little doubt: It was collusion. He presents an overwhelming number of connections between Trump and his close associates with Russian intelligence and organized crime, and he digs into all of them with hard evidence. Initially, Trump and his associates denied it all, but since they had to admit their many meetings with Russians, their guilt appears all the more evident.
...
Our only last hope is Robert Mueller and his ongoing investigation.

Anders Åslund is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

(note: Luke Harding mentioned here wrote a hit-piece book on Edward Snowden)

So with all this xenophobic Russophobia propaganda coming out of this think tank, I had to ask, "Who are these guys?"
Paul Craig Roberts calls The Atlantic Council: The Marketing Arm of the Military/Security Complex.
Well, remember the very first Everyone-Is-A-Putin-Puppet article? The one using the web site Propornot? Well, people looked into that.

So, who's behind this poor attempt at shaping the narrative. Over the last week 2 independent researchers have both published their findings online. These 2 bits of research were both attempting to identify the clandestine group behind Prop or Not. The first bit of research was done using data forensics to identify the owners, and the second used linguistic analysis. Both pieces of research independently came to the conclusion that the main man behind Prop or Not is Atlantic Councils, Michael Weiss.
Michael Weiss is an author, the senior editor for The Daily Beast, a columnist for Foreign Policy, and a frequent national security contributor for CNN. He’s also editor-in-chief of The Interpreter, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and co-chair of the Russia Studies Center at the Henry Jackson Society.

That's not the only "coincidence". Remember Crowdstrike, the security company that examined the DNC email server and then told the FBI who hacked it? Funny thing about that.

In lieu of substantive evidence provided to the public that the alleged hacks which led to Wikileaks releases of DNC and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta’s emails were orchestrated by the Russian Government, CrowdStrike’s bias has been cited as undependable in its own assessment, in addition to its skeptical methods and conclusions. The firm’s CTO and co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with openly anti-Russian sentiments that is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who also happened to donate at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.
In 2013, the Atlantic Council awarded Hillary Clinton it’s Distinguished International Leadership Award.

A Ukrainian oligarch who was a big donor to the Clinton campaign.
What a coincidence!
Not only that, Crowdstrike falsely accused Russia of hacking Ukrainian artillery.

More commentary from me and my @AtlanticCouncil colleagues on Mueller’s indictment of several Russian citizens involved in information warfare ops (yes, that’s what they are) during the 2016 election. https://t.co/AINmTqX4UY

It appears that the Atlantic Council is the primary source of false, and eventually disproven hysterical accusations about Russia, that get picked up by the news media.
Even worse, the Atlantic Council is trying to lie us into a war against Russia, much like Bush/Cheney lied us into invading Iraq. Except this time it could mean WWIII and the end of life on this planet.

7/2017 "ONE OF THE most under-discussed yet consequential changes in the American political landscape is the reunion between the Democratic Party and the country’s most extreme and discredited neocons. While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by far more common beliefs than contempt for the current president.

A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance. Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” that “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” and also “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.”

They do a DEEEEEEP Dive into Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD Greenwald mentions above) and its originator, the Russia-hating hawks at German Marshall Fund US: fucking NeoCons [Kristol, Chertoff, Schake) and Team Hillz/Obama NeoLib War Hawks (Morrell, Wong, Rosenberger, Watts) top to bottom -

1/2018 "Can we trust the judgement of think-tanks who have labeled Twitter users as part of a ‘Russian influence campaign’ as sound when those same entities provide little evidence, and their high-level members include former Clinton supporters?

At the beginning of 2017, an initiative was launched by a non-partisan think-tank called the German Marshall Fund US (GMFUS) under the name “The Alliance For Securing Democracy” (ASD).

During the Summer, ASD started working on a project they called the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard“, an effort that was presented to the public as a means of monitoring Russian disinformation efforts on Twitter, apparently boosted by research covering a three year period."

That's one fucked up "non-partisan" think tank, folks!

Note that the Hamilton 68 Dashboard is propriety black box software+analysis that ASD uses to "monitor" the intertubz for Russian misdeeds. Shocker, they find it everywhere they look! No, they won't tell us specifics of what/how it works. Trust us...Russian agents are afoot!

Fingers crossed we avoid nuclear confrontation.

How about all those patriotic names? Hamilton 68. German Marshall Fund US etc. I suppose they give those Cold Warriors a stiff upper lip (or something) each time they say them. #Patriots

Of course this crew thinks #RussiaDidIt! and needs to be confronted. Dreams of the Fulda Gap, anyone? Note, they are so serious and awesome they have Honorary Directors and Lifetime Directors. Sadly, no Honorary Lifetime Directors...

7/2017 "ONE OF THE most under-discussed yet consequential changes in the American political landscape is the reunion between the Democratic Party and the country’s most extreme and discredited neocons. While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by far more common beliefs than contempt for the current president.

A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance. Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” that “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” and also “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.”

They do a DEEEEEEP Dive into Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD Greenwald mentions above) and its originator, the Russia-hating hawks at German Marshall Fund US: fucking NeoCons [Kristol, Chertoff, Schake) and Team Hillz/Obama NeoLib War Hawks (Morrell, Wong, Rosenberger, Watts) top to bottom -

1/2018 "Can we trust the judgement of think-tanks who have labeled Twitter users as part of a ‘Russian influence campaign’ as sound when those same entities provide little evidence, and their high-level members include former Clinton supporters?

At the beginning of 2017, an initiative was launched by a non-partisan think-tank called the German Marshall Fund US (GMFUS) under the name “The Alliance For Securing Democracy” (ASD).

During the Summer, ASD started working on a project they called the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard“, an effort that was presented to the public as a means of monitoring Russian disinformation efforts on Twitter, apparently boosted by research covering a three year period."

That's one fucked up "non-partisan" think tank, folks!

Note that the Hamilton 68 Dashboard is propriety black box software+analysis that ASD uses to "monitor" the intertubz for Russian misdeeds. Shocker, they find it everywhere they look! No, they won't tell us specifics of what/how it works. Trust us...Russian agents are afoot!

Fingers crossed we avoid nuclear confrontation.

How about all those patriotic names? Hamilton 68. German Marshall Fund US etc. I suppose they give those Cold Warriors a stiff upper lip (or something) each time they say them. #Patriots

Of course this crew thinks #RussiaDidIt! and needs to be confronted. Dreams of the Fulda Gap, anyone? Note, they are so serious and awesome they have Honorary Directors and Lifetime Directors. Sadly, no Honorary Lifetime Directors...

7/2017 "ONE OF THE most under-discussed yet consequential changes in the American political landscape is the reunion between the Democratic Party and the country’s most extreme and discredited neocons. While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by far more common beliefs than contempt for the current president.

A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance. Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” that “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” and also “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.”

They do a DEEEEEEP Dive into Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD Greenwald mentions above) and its originator, the Russia-hating hawks at German Marshall Fund US: fucking NeoCons [Kristol, Chertoff, Schake) and Team Hillz/Obama NeoLib War Hawks (Morrell, Wong, Rosenberger, Watts) top to bottom -

1/2018 "Can we trust the judgement of think-tanks who have labeled Twitter users as part of a ‘Russian influence campaign’ as sound when those same entities provide little evidence, and their high-level members include former Clinton supporters?

At the beginning of 2017, an initiative was launched by a non-partisan think-tank called the German Marshall Fund US (GMFUS) under the name “The Alliance For Securing Democracy” (ASD).

During the Summer, ASD started working on a project they called the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard“, an effort that was presented to the public as a means of monitoring Russian disinformation efforts on Twitter, apparently boosted by research covering a three year period."

That's one fucked up "non-partisan" think tank, folks!

Note that the Hamilton 68 Dashboard is propriety black box software+analysis that ASD uses to "monitor" the intertubz for Russian misdeeds. Shocker, they find it everywhere they look! No, they won't tell us specifics of what/how it works. Trust us...Russian agents are afoot!

Fingers crossed we avoid nuclear confrontation.

How about all those patriotic names? Hamilton 68. German Marshall Fund US etc. I suppose they give those Cold Warriors a stiff upper lip (or something) each time they say them. #Patriots

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Disclaimer: No Russian, living or dead, had anything to do with the posting of this proudly home-grown comment

As always, you've nailed it. And indeed, we know from emails and many posts, especially including your many informative contributions, the Clinton campaign developed Russiagate - they want to finish it us, if Trump doesn't get to do it first, as seems more and more likely, although I very much doubt that any of us would have survived Her election anywhere near this long... But I'll bet all this would still be termed 'right-wing propaganda' on DKos.

Clinton: US should use 'military response' to fight cyberattacks from Russia and China
Clinton said the US should 'lead the world in setting the rules in cyberspace'.

Jason Murdock
By Jason Murdock
September 1, 2016

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party presidential nominee and former US secretary of state, has said that if she becomes president cyberattacks against US interests will be treated "like any other attack" – and that includes military action.

The candidate, who has been investigated by the FBI over use of a private email server to store classified material, was speaking on the campaign trial at the American Legion National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio on 31 August.

"As President, I will make it clear that the United States will treat cyberattacks just like any other attack. We will be ready with serious political, economic, and military responses," she told the attendees, largely made up of veterans and their supporters.

"We are going to invest in protecting our governmental networks and our national infrastructure," she continued. "I want us to lead the world in setting the rules in cyberspace. If America doesn't, others will."

The speech made a number of references to the rise in cybercrime – and the various rival nation states that Clinton asserted are currently attacking the US. Most recently, Kremlin-linked hackers were suspected of hacking into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

"We need to respond to evolving threats from states like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea," Clinton said in the speech. "We need a military that is ready and agile so it can meet the full range of threats and operate on short notice across every domain – not just land, sea, air and space but also cyberspace. ...

... As tensions between superpowers continues to escalate over cybercrime and cyber-espionage, US officials have remained uncertain about how to classify these security incidents – especially when a major computer infiltration crossed the line into an 'act of war'. ...

...The US government and the Obama administration have not yet pointed the finger directly at the Kremlin or the nation's president Vladimir Putin. Yet in pre-election rhetoric, Clinton has remained adamant that Russian hackers were involved in the DNC attack.

"We know that Russian intelligence services, which are part of the Russian government, which is under the firm control of Vladimir Putin, hacked into the DNC. We know that they arranged for a lot of those emails to be released," Clinton said in an interview with Fox News aired on 31 July. In response, the Russian government has repeatedly denied involvement in the breaches.

Lol, all right wing propaganda, of course! And especially that video of Her speech at source.

Clearly, Her billionaires ruled, especially since Her had the Likud-supporting ones on Her side, even if they switched to Trump - now reportedly even more eager to please than was The Mad Bomber - before the election.

Oh, wait, I suppose now this makes Her a strong leader and exceptionally suitable for ending life on the planet, being utterly MAD, and with all of Her money to burn?

This clock will chime for the next 10,000 years from deep within a Texas mountain
The clock, partly funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, will be completely mechanical and be about 200 feet tall.

By Immanuel Jotham
February 21, 2018 06:23 GMT

A clock that will run and chime for thousands of years is now being installed deep within a mountain in Texas. The project called 10,000 Year Clock is being spearheaded by the Long Now Foundation and is partly funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Planning and construction of the clock have been on for over two decades now, Popular Mechanics reports. The assembly is now being completed and Bezos released footage on his Twitter that shows mechanical parts of the clock being put together.

The clock will run for thousands of years without any human intervention and is entirely mechanical. Designed by Danny Hillis, the clock will also ring out chimes once every 1,000 years and this will be a unique, unrepeated chime. ...

... Once completed, visitors will be allowed to see firsthand several of the clock's mechanisms from designated viewing areas that will be built into the clock. Yearly anniversaries, as well as 10th year, 100th year, 1,000th year, and 10,000th year anniversaries will be observed at the clock, if there are people around to witness it.

Doesn't look as though we'll make that 1st, 10-year anniversary... quite likely not even the first, if there's even time to finish the thing. Perhaps Bezos'll save the workers for that for a while, bring them out in spacesuits to do that, if that lot survives themselves, in their bunkers, perhaps within that very mountain, if it isn't hit? They're all playing with reality as though it's a freaking video game, and don't realize how disastrously they themselves lose, if winning to die with the only remaining toys.

But clearly there's no sense in his using any of that money toward paying his workers a living wage or treating them like human beings, when they're disposable and evidently will be disposed of soon, along with the rest of us, if The Psychopaths That Be aren't stopped now. He wants a Pharaohic monument - look upon my work, ye mighty visiting aliens, and despair that anyone could possibly be this destructively insanely stupid!

Note that they're planning on nuking other counties, and in their glowing SF (emphasis on 'fiction') scenario where they themselves survive and believe that Super-Tech/Super-Jesus/Super-Whatever will fix things up for them, don't care about the civilians of their European allies dying as an accepted result (with allies like the US PTB, who needs a radioactive enema? Serious question, since they're offering.) but the following is phrased as 'if a nuclear war should happen to occur' when nobody else apart, from such as the Likud nutters, is insane enough to start one.

US Air Force plans doomsday satellites to ensure communications remain if nuclear war breaks out
The AEHF will keep communications open and avoid signal jamming in case of nuclear war.

By Immanuel Jotham
February 18, 2018 08:05 GMT

The US Air Force (USAF) plans to have satellites that will continue to provide communications for the top brass of the US government in the event of nuclear war or such incidents that can knock out communications.

Called Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellites, they are designed specifically to keep military channels in working order. The satellites cannot also be easily hacked or electronically jammed, reports Popular Mechanics. "We need systems that work on the worst day in the history of the world," said Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ...

... "We must concurrently modernise the entire nuclear triad and the command and control systems that enable its effectiveness," said Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson. The AEHF satellite is regarded as part of the US focus on modernisation of its nuclear capability.

Reports emerged over the weekend that China and Russia are busy working on weapons that target satellites, both physically and electronically. "We assess that, if a conflict were to occur involving Russia or China, either country would justify attacks against US and allied satellites as necessary to offset any perceived military advantage derived from military, civil, or commercial space systems," according to an intelligence report.

If nuclear war should break out, satellites like the AEHF might be the only means of communication in a post-apocalyptic world, notes the report. When a nuclear bomb goes off in the air or on the surface, the charged particles that get released would emit energy across the electromagnetic spectrum crippling communications. ...

...Early this year, a secret communications satellite from the government, called the Zuma, was launched but was reportedly lost in space. No one knows the fate of the satellite, launched by SpaceX. It is not known if Zuma was similar to the AEHF or something else entirely.

And the US President is to shut down the internet in any emergency anyway, (thanks, Obama!) crippling citizen communications, life-saving efforts and giving TPTB the ability to 'control the message' should there be still be any civilian survivors to be propagandized.

Damn people in other countries for thinking that they should be able to defend themselves and their allies against Exceptional Psychopaths attacking them, even by 'passive' methods, as by shutting down their military communications!

And good to know that while we're all dying on our murdered planet, the military will be able to continue adding to the damage to ensure that nobody else survives even for a while. Certainly, America - unlike Russia - has no drills or bomb shelters for their citizens, as taxpayer money has to go into the attack machine for global destruction and safe haven (they believe) for themselves, also at taxpayer expense. Aren't there any international Men In White Jackets to come and take The Psychopaths That Be away to where they won't pose any danger to themselves and others? They're setting up to kill life on the planet essentially so that nobody can have any freedom from them...

run directly from the office of Vlad. It was conceived to obscure the coming Russian invasion of the Homeland. The idea behind it is to make Americans so paranoid that they will suspect their spouses, parents, children, neighbors, workmates - anyone who holds a differing political viewpoint or choice of pizza - as being a Russian agent.

It will cause total chaos between the Repugs, the Demorats and the Neutered. The Russian compromised NRA will hand out AK47's to all sides so that the conflicting parties can solve their differences the American way (it is not coincidental that AK47's, manufactured by one of Vlad's buddies, are almost always used in mass shootings within America).

Vlad's PSYOP has turned out to be so effective he has cancelled his backup plan of spiking America's water supply with LSD.

7/2017 "ONE OF THE most under-discussed yet consequential changes in the American political landscape is the reunion between the Democratic Party and the country’s most extreme and discredited neocons. While the rise of Donald Trump, whom neocons loathe, has accelerated this realignment, it began long before the ascension of Trump and is driven by far more common beliefs than contempt for the current president.

A newly formed and, by all appearances, well-funded national security advocacy group, devoted to more hawkish U.S. policies toward Russia and other adversaries, provides the most vivid evidence yet of this alliance. Calling itself the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the group describes itself as “a bipartisan, transatlantic initiative” that “will develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on Russian and other state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions,” and also “will work to publicly document and expose Vladimir Putin’s ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe.”

They do a DEEEEEEP Dive into Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD Greenwald mentions above) and its originator, the Russia-hating hawks at German Marshall Fund US: fucking NeoCons [Kristol, Chertoff, Schake) and Team Hillz/Obama NeoLib War Hawks (Morrell, Wong, Rosenberger, Watts) top to bottom -

1/2018 "Can we trust the judgement of think-tanks who have labeled Twitter users as part of a ‘Russian influence campaign’ as sound when those same entities provide little evidence, and their high-level members include former Clinton supporters?

At the beginning of 2017, an initiative was launched by a non-partisan think-tank called the German Marshall Fund US (GMFUS) under the name “The Alliance For Securing Democracy” (ASD).

During the Summer, ASD started working on a project they called the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard“, an effort that was presented to the public as a means of monitoring Russian disinformation efforts on Twitter, apparently boosted by research covering a three year period."

That's one fucked up "non-partisan" think tank, folks!

Note that the Hamilton 68 Dashboard is propriety black box software+analysis that ASD uses to "monitor" the intertubz for Russian misdeeds. Shocker, they find it everywhere they look! No, they won't tell us specifics of what/how it works. Trust us...Russian agents are afoot!

Fingers crossed we avoid nuclear confrontation.

How about all those patriotic names? Hamilton 68. German Marshall Fund US etc. I suppose they give those Cold Warriors a stiff upper lip (or something) each time they say them. #Patriots

run directly from the office of Vlad. It was conceived to obscure the coming Russian invasion of the Homeland. The idea behind it is to make Americans so paranoid that they will suspect their spouses, parents, children, neighbors, workmates - anyone who holds a differing political viewpoint or choice of pizza - as being a Russian agent.

It will cause total chaos between the Repugs, the Demorats and the Neutered. The Russian compromised NRA will hand out AK47's to all sides so that the conflicting parties can solve their differences the American way (it is not coincidental that AK47's, manufactured by one of Vlad's buddies, are almost always used in mass shootings within America).

Vlad's PSYOP has turned out to be so effective he has cancelled his backup plan of spiking America's water supply with LSD.

@JVolvo2
I figured you would have picked up on the LSD bit. The site is producing a pile of garbage that media is following like a pack of drugged idiots. When America finally comes to it's senses (if they indeed do) they are going to look like complete fuckwits (which they are) who were high on drugs.

Moreover - what is the value of its information when six normal people out of millions of active Twitter users can push a hashtag with a handful of tweets to the top of the dashboard?

But the U.S. media writes long gushing stories about the dashboard and how it somehow shows automated Russian propaganda. They go to length to explain that this shows "Russian influence" and a "Russian" attempt to sow "divisiveness" into people's minds.

This is nuts.

Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the only site critical of it. It predicted:

The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.

It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are normal people.

The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence" into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false "Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the venom and spread it to the public.

@CB
is a term that lines up with Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper #68 in support of the Electoral College. Doesn't that assert that Hillary Clinton supporters, monitoring Putin's treachery, are supporters of the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is what made Donald Trump President, in spite of the popular vote for Hillary Clinton. So all along I have wondered why the fury among Democrats has been against Putin, or any other distraction, and not against the Electoral College. I assumed it was because the Democrats use the Electoral College just as strategically as the Republicans do. And so in order to distract angry voters from the urge to remove the Electoral College, the Party has diverted voters' attention toward some other boogie man. Does the term Hamilton 68 give away their motive for distraction?

#1.1.3.1
I figured you would have picked up on the LSD bit. The site is producing a pile of garbage that media is following like a pack of drugged idiots. When America finally comes to it's senses (if they indeed do) they are going to look like complete fuckwits (which they are) who were high on drugs.

Moreover - what is the value of its information when six normal people out of millions of active Twitter users can push a hashtag with a handful of tweets to the top of the dashboard?

But the U.S. media writes long gushing stories about the dashboard and how it somehow shows automated Russian propaganda. They go to length to explain that this shows "Russian influence" and a "Russian" attempt to sow "divisiveness" into people's minds.

This is nuts.

Last August, when the Hamilton 68 project was first released, the Nation was the only site critical of it. It predicted:

The import of GMF's project is clear: Reporting on anything that might put the US in a bad light is now tantamount to spreading Russian propaganda.

It is now even worse than that. The top ranking of the #merrychristmas hashtag shows that the algorithm does not even care about good or bad news. The tracked twitter accounts are normal people.

The whole project is just a means to push fake stories about alleged "Russian influence" into U.S. medias. Whenever some issue creeps up on its dashboard that somehow fits its false "Russian bots" and "divisiveness" narrative the Alliance for Securing Democracy contacts the media to spread its poison. The U.S. media, - CNN, Wired, the New York Times - are by now obviously devoid of thinking journalists and fact checkers. They simple re-package the venom and spread it to the public.

The Clinton Machine has it's tentacles spread deep and wide - the MSM, banking, corporations, neocons, neolibs, the FBI, even the NSA. Mere mortals would now be sitting in a Federal prison for doing a small fraction of what she did. The one truthful thing coming from the Trumpeters mouth, "Crooked Hillary."

The biggest question is: "Will she get away with it?"

#1.1.3.1.1
is a term that lines up with Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Paper #68 in support of the Electoral College. Doesn't that assert that Hillary Clinton supporters, monitoring Putin's treachery, are supporters of the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is what made Donald Trump President, in spite of the popular vote for Hillary Clinton. So all along I have wondered why the fury among Democrats has been against Putin, or any other distraction, and not against the Electoral College. I assumed it was because the Democrats use the Electoral College just as strategically as the Republicans do. And so in order to distract angry voters from the urge to remove the Electoral College, the Party has diverted voters' attention toward some other boogie man. Does the term Hamilton 68 give away their motive for distraction?

@CB
with everything you have said. And I would add to it the coup and the war in Ukraine used to stop Russia from making peaceful energy deals because peaceful economic existence is the end of the black hole of unaccountable defense spending.

#1.1.3.1.1.1
in front of the American public, with the complicity of the MSM to hide/divert information which has been coming out about Her Heinousness' criminality:

the Nunes memo exposing her attempts to frame Trump with the help of the FBI

The Clinton Machine has it's tentacles spread deep and wide - the MSM, banking, corporations, neocons, neolibs, the FBI, even the NSA. Mere mortals would now be sitting in a Federal prison for doing a small fraction of what she did. The one truthful thing coming from the Trumpeters mouth, "Crooked Hillary."

Remember when the Russia Hoax began? CrowdStrike’s co-founder and chief technical officer, Dmitri Alperovitch, was onsite at the DNC, sounding the alarm about alleged Russian “hackers.”

Well, it turns out that Dmitri Alperovitch is a senior fellow with the Saudi-funded, virulently anti-Putin Atlantic Council, which has been extensively supportive of Hillary Clinton. The neocon think tank is owned by a Ukrainian billionaire, and Fellow Ukrainian, Dmitri Alperovitch, has helped them crank out think pieces with such incendiary anti-Kremlin titles as “Distract Deceive Destroy: Putin at War in Syria” and “Six Immediate Steps to Stop Putin’s Aggression.”

Remember, Dmitri Alperovitch looks at the DNC servers so that 17 Intelligence Agencies don't have to.

accusations of Russia hacking the DNC computers. It's snowballed from there. But when people found out that the FBI wasn't allowed to examine their computers it should have stopped there. Especially when it came out that CrowdStrike was a Ukrainian company and its owner had strong anti Russian animosity toward Russia. How did this go from the 'hacked the DNC computers' to Trump colluded with Russia?

This addresses the Ukraine coup 'which mobilized fascist mobs in the streets of Kyiv to drive an elected pro-Russian president out of office and replace him with an American stooge.' And of course the push for war with Russia.

So which country has interfered with not only other countries elections, but also its overthrowing elected governments and installing its puppet governments as Woolsey admits?

One comment on this article wonders if Bernie had been elected, would he have been accused of colluding with Russia too?
Great find! Thanks.

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Disclaimer: No Russian, living or dead, had anything to do with the posting of this proudly home-grown comment

Funny how there isn't a well funded research institution dedicated to the tracking of domestic US disinformation campaigns (which apparently are perfectly legal and proper so long as nobody in the organization knows any Russians).

Nice essay.

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The drama of the deep state in full factional meltdown makes Mario Puzo look like a dime store hack.

Funny how there isn't a well funded research institution dedicated to the tracking of domestic US disinformation campaigns (which apparently are perfectly legal and proper so long as nobody in the organization knows any Russians).

We have a lot to learn from the Russians. We could take the big money completely out of politics and revolutionize the business of campaign finance if we could learn the tricks that Russians used to affect a presidential election on the comparatively tiny amount they spent.

And it'll work. At least here in 'Murica because the plebs are too stupid and brainwashed to be anywhere near left-wing. But then again, left-right dichotomy is just another Jewish conspiracy according to some internet trolls.

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17 users have voted.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

The Washington Post reports that Kushner, whose portfolio encompasses issues ranging from the Middle East peace process to modernizing the federal government’s use of technology, has put in more requests for U.S. intelligence information than any White House staffer not working for the National Security Council.

Kushner holds a Top Secret/sensitive compartmented information (SCI) security clearance, the highest level, which allows him to review some of the nation’s most closely-guarded secrets and allows him access to the presidential daily briefing, according to the Post.

He is one of reportedly dozens of White House officials who have been operating with temporary clearances during Trump’s first year in office, and his clearance could be in jeopardy following chief of staff John Kelly’s changes to the clearance process, the Post said.

since the dem establishment is not going to take them down, they have to do it themselves

or maybe it will be High School students who take them down

Betsy Devos has to work even harder to kill off the education system in the US

a friend is writing a book and I am reviewing it and trying how to figure it out

i continue to show that I am nuts through my comments here and this one is because I actually will post an article by joy reid. I confess i only know her through the people who I know who say she is a piece of establishment democratic shit, but i can at least link her article

I wonder if there is a correlation between pounding on a claimed ally in text and crimes of power.

I remember some situations where commenters, community members at dKos would say some fucking mean shit to people who were not completely stable or were emotionally compromised on the issue.

IIRC, Al G (only recall his name because of Dirk Pitt novels), was one of them to do that from time to time. I could be wrong on this...

But, the point is:
Do powerful people who berate less powerful people in text in public have problems with power in other situations? I'd be willing to bet that there is high correlation: abuse is abuse.

a friend is writing a book and I am reviewing it and trying how to figure it out

i continue to show that I am nuts through my comments here and this one is because I actually will post an article by joy reid. I confess i only know her through the people who I know who say she is a piece of establishment democratic shit, but i can at least link her article

@DonMidwest
The Joy Reid puff piece on Al Giordano running against Bernie Sanders in 2018 was published in the Daily Beast. (The article is awful.) Gjohnsit refers to Michael Weiss, senior editor at the Daily Beast, and his relationship with the Atlantic Council.

a friend is writing a book and I am reviewing it and trying how to figure it out

i continue to show that I am nuts through my comments here and this one is because I actually will post an article by joy reid. I confess i only know her through the people who I know who say she is a piece of establishment democratic shit, but i can at least link her article

They are on a tear red-baiting Jill Stein and Jimmy Dore. The rest of the left has fallen into line and singing Russia's song just like they sang for Hillary. Great job of piecing this together. I regularly send your stuff to Jimmy Dore and Ron Placone on Twitter.

The rest of the left has fallen into line and singing Russia's song just like they sang for Hillary.

The left was systematically slaughtered by COINTELPRO and twisted into a reactionary right-of-center loyal opposition by the Democratic Party. To call these assholes 'the left' falls right in line with porky propaganda.

They are on a tear red-baiting Jill Stein and Jimmy Dore. The rest of the left has fallen into line and singing Russia's song just like they sang for Hillary. Great job of piecing this together. I regularly send your stuff to Jimmy Dore and Ron Placone on Twitter.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

The rest of the left has fallen into line and singing Russia's song just like they sang for Hillary.

The left was systematically slaughtered by COINTELPRO and twisted into a reactionary right-of-center loyal opposition by the Democratic Party. To call these assholes 'the left' falls right in line with porky propaganda.

The actual meaning of the words remains the same. They've just been kidnapped and - against their intent - used in disguise as impostors for other uglier and accurate terms in order to confuse the issues to suit their kidnappers. And that's why, in example, so many people think that they hate 'the liberals', because the 'neo-' prefix has been left off by those falsely identifying various of those using that disguised and misapplied term. (I actually don't much like that term myself any more, because it makes me think of The Mad Bomber. Which really isn't very kind to a term meaning noble, open-minded, generous spirited, etc., and abused to purportedly cover 'pathologically greedy, duplicitous, scheming, mean-minded, psychopathically callous and cruel - and I could, of course, go on for some time...)

Those uber warlike yahoos have been around since 1961. I knew I remembered reading about them and the trouble they stirred up back then. They had a field day with the Russkies when they were the USSR. Of course, these prehistoric, fascist, neanderthals are always loaded with coin$$$. Always. It's a negative law of nature. Sigh. Gawd, am I glad I avoid Twitter!! Rec'd!!

Eventually, however, the full truth will come out, and we will be rid of Trump. The best and most honorable outcome would be for Vice President Pence to preside over some kind of caretaker government, acknowledging that Trump’s election (and his own) was not legitimate. This course might make the country whole. It might even make America great again.

But that is probably too much to hope for. Republicans have too much to gain in the enactment of far-right policies and the appointment of far-right courts to place the republic first.

As a first and urgent step, ridding the republic of Trump is the place to start. The truth will come out. If Trump tries to suppress these investigations, it will be so much the worse for him.

Vladimir Putin put this man in office, and Americans will not stand for it.

So how did it come about that Vladimir Putin selects America's Presidents these days?

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13 users have voted.

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"Day-to-day life under crapitalism is so horrible and depressing." -- Sam Miller

Eventually, however, the full truth will come out, and we will be rid of Trump. The best and most honorable outcome would be for Vice President Pence to preside over some kind of caretaker government, acknowledging that Trump’s election (and his own) was not legitimate. This course might make the country whole. It might even make America great again.

But that is probably too much to hope for. Republicans have too much to gain in the enactment of far-right policies and the appointment of far-right courts to place the republic first.

As a first and urgent step, ridding the republic of Trump is the place to start. The truth will come out. If Trump tries to suppress these investigations, it will be so much the worse for him.

Vladimir Putin put this man in office, and Americans will not stand for it.

So how did it come about that Vladimir Putin selects America's Presidents these days?

Asia Security
The Asia Security Initiative equips the transatlantic community to "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific and to position the Atlantic Council to serve as the essential link between high-level transatlantic and Asian leaders and thinkers on crucial current and future issues in international security.

Cyber Statecraft
The Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative helps foster international cooperation and understanding of new forms of competition and conflict in cyberspace through global engagement and thought leadership.

Emerging Leaders of Pakistan
This program seeks to empower the next generation of Pakistan's leaders… This program is supported by the US Embassy in Islamabad through Meridian International Center, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Hashoo Group in Pakistan.

Eurasian Energy Futures
The Atlantic Council… assembled a top-notch group of experts with wide-ranging experience and background in government, academia, think tanks, and industry... We work together with key political leaders, thinkers, analysts, and the top industrial players in the United States, Europe, and Eurasia to lead a strategic debate on the future of energy markets, produce papers on strategic Eurasian energy issues, and organize roundtable discussions, strategy sessions, workshops, and multi-day conferences.

Iran Task Force
This project, chaired by Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, seeks to perform a comprehensive analysis of Iran's internal political landscape—as well as its role in the region and globally. Through Atlantic Council issue briefs, reports, and public and private meetings with key experts on Iran, the Task Force seeks to answer the question of whether there are elements within the country and region that can build the basis for an improved relationship with the West and how these elements, if they exist, could be utilized by US policymakers. The objective is to develop an accurate assessment of the challenges we face.

Middle East Peace and Security
Established in 2012 as a core practice area of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, the Middle East Peace and Security Initiative brings together thought leaders and experts from the policy, business, and civil society communities to design innovative strategies to tackle present and future challenges in the region.

Strategic Foresight
The Atlantic Council's Strategic Foresight Initiative seeks to navigate this uncertainty and provide guideposts for moving the world toward desired outcomes...

Transatlantic Finance Initiative
In 2013, the Atlantic Council and C. Boyden Gray Fellow Chris Brummer launched the Transatlantic Finance Initiative (TFI) in order to conduct a meaningful discussion on international financial, fiscal, and monetary regulation…

Transatlantic SecurityThe Transatlantic Security Initiative shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

Now it's Russia Russia Russia all day every day. Or another Mueller has him and he's going down.. type diaries. They've been writing that headline for over a year now. Funny how everyone who is being charged had nothing to do with the Russian collusion. This investigation is snarking up everyone who has any connection to Trump. This reminds me of the white water investigations and look where they went.

Asia Security
The Asia Security Initiative equips the transatlantic community to "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific and to position the Atlantic Council to serve as the essential link between high-level transatlantic and Asian leaders and thinkers on crucial current and future issues in international security.

Cyber Statecraft
The Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative helps foster international cooperation and understanding of new forms of competition and conflict in cyberspace through global engagement and thought leadership.

Emerging Leaders of Pakistan
This program seeks to empower the next generation of Pakistan's leaders… This program is supported by the US Embassy in Islamabad through Meridian International Center, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Hashoo Group in Pakistan.

Eurasian Energy Futures
The Atlantic Council… assembled a top-notch group of experts with wide-ranging experience and background in government, academia, think tanks, and industry... We work together with key political leaders, thinkers, analysts, and the top industrial players in the United States, Europe, and Eurasia to lead a strategic debate on the future of energy markets, produce papers on strategic Eurasian energy issues, and organize roundtable discussions, strategy sessions, workshops, and multi-day conferences.

Iran Task Force
This project, chaired by Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, seeks to perform a comprehensive analysis of Iran's internal political landscape—as well as its role in the region and globally. Through Atlantic Council issue briefs, reports, and public and private meetings with key experts on Iran, the Task Force seeks to answer the question of whether there are elements within the country and region that can build the basis for an improved relationship with the West and how these elements, if they exist, could be utilized by US policymakers. The objective is to develop an accurate assessment of the challenges we face.

Middle East Peace and Security
Established in 2012 as a core practice area of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, the Middle East Peace and Security Initiative brings together thought leaders and experts from the policy, business, and civil society communities to design innovative strategies to tackle present and future challenges in the region.

Strategic Foresight
The Atlantic Council's Strategic Foresight Initiative seeks to navigate this uncertainty and provide guideposts for moving the world toward desired outcomes...

Transatlantic Finance Initiative
In 2013, the Atlantic Council and C. Boyden Gray Fellow Chris Brummer launched the Transatlantic Finance Initiative (TFI) in order to conduct a meaningful discussion on international financial, fiscal, and monetary regulation…

Transatlantic SecurityThe Transatlantic Security Initiative shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

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6 users have voted.

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Disclaimer: No Russian, living or dead, had anything to do with the posting of this proudly home-grown comment

Now it's Russia Russia Russia all day every day. Or another Mueller has him and he's going down.. type diaries. They've been writing that headline for over a year now. Funny how everyone who is being charged had nothing to do with the Russian collusion. This investigation is snarking up everyone who has any connection to Trump. This reminds me of the white water investigations and look where they went.

It tracks upwards when Bernie started making an impact and begins to dive when the fuckwits at TOP put the boots to his supporters. They should have figured out they were doing something wrong at that time. Instead, they doubled down. Doing it again right now.

Maybe we can use Alexa to predict the 2018 midterms? Doesn't look good for the Dums so far.

It tracks upwards when Bernie started making an impact and begins to dive when the fuckwits at TOP put the boots to his supporters. They should have figured out they were doing something wrong at that time. Instead, they doubled down. Doing it again right now.

Maybe we can use Alexa to predict the 2018 midterms? Doesn't look good for the Dums so far.

Frank Ricciardone is the Atlantic Council person who has caught my attention most often since the start of the Syrian crisis and throughout the war. In simple terms, he repeats the recurring thought that the problems are unsolvable, unending, unresolvable, complicated, unclear, evasive, which translates into endless $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for the poor unfortunate industry of war.

US News and World Report quotes Vice President and Rafik Hariri Center Director Francis J. Ricciardone on why, despite Turkey joining the anti-ISIS fight, a true alliance between Turkey and the United States to tackle the Syrian problem is still evasive:

"So far, the only thing that's clear is we want to destroy ISIS. We've been really unclear with respect to Assad, and that's made it difficult for the Turks who are also against Assad," says Francis Ricciardone, who until last July was the US Ambassador to Turkey.

The Turks' most eager pleas to the United States during the ambassador's tenure in Ankara focused on establishing some form of safe-zone between warring Syria and Turkey. Such a plan remains ambiguous, and without a clear policy for the future of Syria, the Turks worry myriad extremists would continue to fill the political vacuum.

"They used to warn us: 'Look, if you don't get involved, if you don't secure this, we're going to be seeing the Taliban on the Mediterranean,'" says Ricciardone, now with the Atlantic Council.